Renteria True To His Roots
By Greg Stoda, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
February 23, 2003
JUPITER -- The guerrilla war is older than the baseball player.
It has been going on in Colombia, in fact, since long before Edgar Renteria was born in Baranquilla on the northern coastline along the Caribbean Sea.
And maybe that's part of it.
Maybe the conflicts -- not to mention the reputation of violent drug cartels in Medellin and terrorism in the capital city of Bogota -- are so much a part of life in those places that a numbness about all of it passes for a feeling of safety. A cushion of hundreds of miles of separation from the madness might afford such strange comfort.
"The revolution does not reach us in Baranquilla," Renteria said Friday afternoon while walking in from a practice field at Roger Dean Stadium during spring training with the St. Louis Cardinals. "I love my country."
Renteria admits it's possible he doesn't understand the potential for danger as the policies of President Alvaro Uribe and the motives of Carlos Ospina, head of Colombia's army, are questioned.
But is that so different than how many U.S. citizens are feeling these days about their own government and military?
"It is our home," Renteria said.
And it is where -- from early December to early January -- Renteria, his seven siblings and his mother retreat every year.
It is where Renteria does strength work in preparation for spring work and where he conducts baseball clinics for children who aspire to be what he is.
It's possible the annual family trip to Baranquilla is where Renteria finds the wellspring of what Cardinals manager Tony La Russa calls "the best balance between the personal and the professional" he has seen in any player.
"He takes time to enjoy life without going over the edge," La Russa said. "And he does the same thing in competition. He isn't someone who's going to get lost either way. He's very special.
"One life intrudes on the other so often. I think he's very careful about not letting that happen, or dealing calmly with it when it does."
Renteria's not a kid, anymore, and doesn't have a kid's sensibilities.
If the Marlins as World Series champions seems forever ago -- and it does, doesn't it? -- then why does it seem impossible that Renteria is about to begin his fifth season with the Cardinals since leaving the Florida family?
Maybe it's because Renteria was the one who delivered the run-scoring single in the 11th inning of Game 7 against Cleveland that gave the Marlins their 1997 title. It's that hit -- a line drive to center field -- that stands most clearly as the picture of now-faded Marlins glory.
So, there's that.
More likely, though, Renteria as a fifth-year Cardinal seems impossible to comprehend simply because he was for so long so clearly the youthful picture of Florida's own existence.
He was a 16-year-old signee with the Marlins, and their 22-year-old World Series shortstop.
It's likely Renteria will turn out to be the player Florida misses most from that championship team... even beyond outfielder Gary Sheffield or starting pitchers Kevin Brown and Al Leiter or closer Robb Nen.
He has given the Cardinals approximately 150 games a season for four years while hitting for decent average (.280) with some power. Last year, Renteria batted.305 with 11 home runs and 83 RBI. And he can still steal a base or two dozen.
Renteria has a home in Pembrooke Pines, but wants his baseball home to be with the Cardinals for the remainder of his career.
No matter what, though, he'll keep going back to Colombia.
"It's where we know everyone," Renteria said. "We have a good time. There is always so much family and friends."
It's an important touchstone for him.
It's a chance to return to the neighborhood where he once played in Tomas Arreta Stadium as a grade-schooler. It's a chance, too, to return to the streets where his mother sold food and trinkets to support Renteria and his three older brothers and four older sisters when a father died just after the youngest child's first birthday.
The guerrilla war on the Colombian countrysides already was many years old.
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